Category: Inflammation

I heard an article on the radio earlier this week about a group of people who every year, in January, go out in the countryside and monitor how many wild flowers they can find. I have been thinking about that since I took a long car journey last Sunday and noticed that the catkins were abundant in the trees.

Catkins or ‘lamb’s tails’ are usually one of the first signs of spring but there they are in January hanging in the sunshine. It only takes a little warmth for them to burst into life and to spread their pollen on the wind. As soon as we have some warm sunshine, nature recognises the warmth and responds with a release of pollen – as it should do.

I have been asked over the last week – ‘This feels like hay fever but it’s only January … what do you think?’ Well my answer is Hazel is the problem. Although it is ‘only January’ if you look closely you will see the tips of the spring bulbs poking through the ground and the catkins on the trees – all getting ready and making sure they are there for the spring warmth. For those sensitive to pollen from Spring flowers and shrubs this can mean itchy eyes, running nose and headaches.

So you aren’t imagining it – you can get hay fever in Spring or even at the end of Winter.

I watched BBC Breakfast this morning with great interest and lots of frustration. It featured a small boy playing football in his garden with his mum – both of whom suffer with hay fever. The mother was interviewed back inside her home and showed how she was using an inhaler and anti-histamine to prevent coughing. She also had very red, inflamed and itching arms after ‘just being in her garden’.

At the end of the article the report exclaimed emphatically – “there is no cure for hay fever”. “That’s so wrong” I cried.

It’s so wrong on two counts. One it’s wrong because no one needs to suffer with hay fever so my exclamation came from a knowledge that I can help those sufferers and two, because there is a ‘cure’. My frustration is that I know not everyone will take what I say on board and come to see me to get it sorted out.

I spoke to two people on Saturday – both suffering badly – but neither sounded like they would actually call me, they were both going to take another anti-histamine in the hope it would stop the agony. I absolutely respect their choice and I know what I do seems strange to some people.

What I don’t understand is if they are suffering that much why wouldn’t they give it a try.

I offer a 60 day money back guarantee on products -no quibble! Try taking your empty packet of anti-histamine back to the chemist and asking for a refund.

Why is the pollen count so high?

Most people are aware by now that we have had the coldest Spring in many, many years and the result of that is that rather than a staged pollen release of trees, grass and then weeds and flowers which happens naturally – the sudden burst of warm weather after such a cold Spring meant that everything released it’s pollen at the same time! There was so much pollen in the air that hay fever sufferers found that they had to take more medication or that the medication just wasn’t working any more.

Pollen is released when the temperature gets to around 15 degrees but really gets going at 17 degrees. The pollen levels usually affect people early in the morning and late in the day because in the middle of the day the warm air currents keep the pollen ‘above nose level’ . When it is really windy those air currents distribute the pollen at lower levels.

Whilst taking Bee Pollen is not a ‘cure’, in that it will not stop you being susceptible to hay fever when you don’t take it – it will stop it if you take it when you do. But you could say that about any medication couldn’t you? So the use of the word ‘cure’ is interesting.

8 any course of medical therapy, esp one proved effective in combating a disease 9 a means of restoring health or improving a condition, situation, etc

Based on this definition, I’d say you could describe a solution to hay fever as a cure couldn’t you?

Whether to take anti-histamine or steroids is, of course, a personal choice. Having been a hay fever sufferer (allergies and eczema very often go together), my personal choice was not to.

Histamine is the chemical which your body releases to try to combat the exposure to the allergen – it is your immune system responding to protect you – so logically why would I want to supress that if there was another way? It is the histamine which causes the itching, sneezing and inflammation. Anti-histamine does stop the symptom, it supresses the immune response. However, over time, people find they need to take more and more anti-histamine as the body tries to fight back to restore the immune system.

Texas Aloe Plantation

Another way of balancing the immune system is by drinkingaloe vera juice. It restores the immune system to normal levels and is very effective in reducing inflammation in all areas of the body and so can be very helpful with hay fever. You can find out more about aloe vera here.

The therapy of Kinesiology uses a strategy which is to strengthen the immune system and to de-sensitise the body’s energy system to the allergen so that the histamine isn’t released. When the body no longer perceives the allergen as a threat, it doesn’t release the histamine. All you have to do is find the allergen. That sounds difficult? – it really isn’t if you know how – and yes, you guessed it, I know how. If you don’t know exactly what you are allergic to, it’s not a problem. I have over 500 potential allergens in my test kit – and if your allergen isn’t in there, we have other ways of finding it. In 99.9% of cases, the process only has to be done once.

You can find the pollen count in your area with a really helpful page on the Met Office website, it’s sponsored by Benadryl (a product I don’t support) but it has really good information.

If you would like to have a chat about how I can help you so that you don’t have to keep your fingers crossed for a sneeze free Summer then please contact me.